Whether useful or not, hundreds of smartwatches, glasses, health trackers, and even smart jewelry have hit the market in the past several years.

There are connected lights that dim when a users peaks into their smartwatch. Motorcycle helmets with heads-up displays alerting riders they’re driving too fast. Temperature tracking pacifiers that alert parents to sudden changes.

There’s even a washing machine that turns on when a service dog barks at it. Woof, indeed.

But in service, wearables have been slow to catch on.

Opportunities for leveraging these devices to improve field service management outcomes most certainly exist.

Yet opportunities for leveraging these devices to improve field service management outcomes most certainly exist. While fitness trackers and consumer watches seem to be dominating current markets, research has shown that the broader point-of-sales category is experiencing double digit growth.

In the following paragraphs, we uncover three ways wearables could improve service for organisations willing to make the technology investment.

Route Optimisation and Safety

Route optimisation, and improved route efficiency can both bolster service profits. Naturally, keeping techs safe on the road is also a no-brainer.

Wearables provide a path to improving both.

An array of mobile and wearable technology are making route mapping, hands-free communication, and field-based driving more efficient every year.

Organisations implementing connected car technology for optimised route mapping are currently realising major cost savings. For example, the UPS ORION route mapping overhaul has projected annual reductions of 100 million miles driven and fuel savings of 10 million gallons per year for the organisation. No small feat, if scaled correctly. But route optimization is just the first step.

If empowered with smartwatches, tech safety and route efficiency could be improved through handsfree communication and route updates delivered via these devices, in real time.

How?

Many service techs currently must field calls via smartphones while on the road (if it’s legal while driving in their state). This requires them to take one hand off the wheel, furthering distraction.

Many also get driving directions from this same device.

If equipped with smartwatches capable of delivering directions and calls via voice technology, techs could focus more attention on driving.

An obvious reality in most service roles is the need to work with your hands. If a call comes in, or job details must be logged, the tech has to stop the work they are performing in order to take a call, or jot down some notes.

The tech simply speaks the service details into their notes, sends an email, or makes a call without ever moving away from the service task at hand.

Wearables could prove useful in keeping techs focused on the task at hand, while still taking calls, or logging service details via voice-activated technology. Many smartwatches and wearables come with voice-activated features baked right into their framework.

This means common note-taking applications, text messages, email, or phone calls can be used via voice-activation.

The tech simply speaks the service details into their notes, sends an email, or makes a call without ever moving away from the service task at hand.

Giving Techs Access to Remote Knowledge While in the Field

High first-time fix rates and speedy service resolutions are essential to customer satisfaction and profit margins. But all too often, techs arrive to job sites with the wrong parts, a lack of knowledge about the customer service request, or face a service scenario they cannot resolve.

The bridge to better service is giving techs all the resources they need, in order to fix customer jobs on the first visit. Aberdeen reports that nearly 75% of best-in-class service organisations provide techs with access to remote experts while in the field.

Wearables could be the golden ticket to connecting field techs to remote experts.

Wearables could be the golden ticket to connecting field techs to remote experts.

How?

Wearable glasses technology allows field techs to stream live video feeds from service sites directly back to headquarters or an expert, in real-time. This means experts can guide techs through challenging scenarios, without needing to be on-site for every job. This opens up a world of possibilities for remote training, logging on-site service problems, and field worker safety.

Plus, Gartner predicts smart glasses could save the field service industry $1 billion per year. We couldn’t agree more.

Paul Whitelam is Group VP of Product Marketing at ClickSoftware, where he works with field service management leaders across a variety of industries. Paul has more than twenty years’ experience in enterprise software, working on both the technical and business aspects of many of the areas that are fundamental to field service such as mobility and sensor technology (Nokia), data management (Endeca), and machine learning, SaaS and GIS (HERE).

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